


Harry Uzumaki & the Nine-Tailed Fox

by Snowy_Mountain



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 00:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4079125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowy_Mountain/pseuds/Snowy_Mountain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Millennia has passed since Naruto Uzumaki won the Fourth Shinobi War and absorbed the Kyuubi's power, becoming the new 9-Tailed Kitsune.  An immortal demon fox lord, he encounters the Boy Who Lived and raises him to be a ninja! How will the Wizarding World be changed by the first ninja-wizard?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fathers and Sons

**Preface:** _Harry Potter_ belongs to J.K. Rowling. _Naruto_ is by Masashi Kishimoto.

**4/12/10 Update:** Minor revisions and corrections.

* * *

 

_The world has really gone to crap,_ he decided grimly as he strolled down the street, wincing every now and then at the atrocious sounds and wrinkling his nose when he detected some new horrible stench.

He had no idea of just how long he had been asleep this time but it was clear that at least a decade or more had passed. He couldn't really be too sure. Humans were advancing rather rapidly these days. It wasn't like this back in the good old days. Things hadn't improved too much though. _Pity._

Humans had grown and evolved, adapting and changing, and ultimately taming their environment. And with that mastery, they had become arrogant in their own power. They poisoned the air, the earth, and the very water now. God only knew what they were doing to their bodies too.

It was inevitable that humans altered the environment by just breathing, but a lot of humans seemed to believe that somehow the planet would magically turn back into an unspoiled paradise after they were done with it. The world was dying and they didn't seem to realize. Or care. He felt an overpowering urge to go and smack some sense into some of them. He wondered if this was what the Fox had felt all those centuries ago. This overwhelming contempt for humanity. He wondered briefly if this was simply a result of cynicism due to his advanced age ... or something else passed on by the damn Fox.

Once upon time, he had been a proud ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village, condemned shortly after his birth to become the Living Container of the most powerful Demon Beast of them all; the Nine Tailed Fox.

From his very childhood, he had been beaten, starved, and ignored by a population that hated him. And he had no idea why. What crime he had committed unknowingly to have such contemptuous hatred and disgust directed at him? For over a decade, he assumed that it was because he was an orphan and a troublemaker. It wouldn't be until he was 12 when he discovered the secret that everyone had kept from him, but it would be years later before he discovered the truth of his parentage, that his own father had chosen him for this 'honor'.

He had risen through the ranks, determined to show them all how wrong they were. That he was better than they realized. And he had. He earned their trust, their respect, their friendship, and finally even their highest honors, succeeding to the rank of Hokage and leading Konoha for almost a century. He discovered that the enormous healing abilities that the Fox had gifted him with had also made him damn near immortal. He had been bored out of his skull for almost half a decade before a suitable replacement had emerged from the Jounin ranks and he decided to retire and left to wander.

He spent the next few decades moving from place to place, never really settling down when he felt compelled to create a cavern and fell asleep. He found himself in his mindscape confronting the Demon Fox. He was rather shocked to see the frail and decrepit creature that had once been the most feared Demon Beast of them all. The wheezing fox informed him that their mergence was finally complete; cursing him and his father for his damnable seal that had brought this ignoble end to him. He listened as the creature ranted and raved for several minutes before the fox collapsed, his breath rattling and choking and faded away, passing on and leaving him with his chakra reservoir.

Naruto awoke to find that apparently several centuries had passed during his nap. He found it slightly irritating that he would have to enter this form of suspended animation every now and then. It could last for a decade or a century. Yet another one of the many changes that the fox's chakra had done to him. It made the whiskers that had plagued him for his early childhood look damn tame in comparison. His enhanced senses were one of the beneficial side effects. He also needed a permanent Henge to pass for human too, these days.

His ear twitched as he heard someone shouting. "Get the freak!"

He scowled, checking an instinctive desire to seize one of his concealed kunai. He found a group of boys—kids really, beating another one curled up in a fetal ball on the ground. He bared his teeth snarling and in flash, he crossed the distance and grabbed two of them by their collars and flung them aside. They arced through the air and landed heavily on the ground. The third and by far, the largest and widest boy whirled, surprised. Naruto smirked as they locked eyes and his irises shifted to a dark red and the pupils into a slit-like shape as he unleashed a low-level genjutsu that Kurenai Sensei tried to teach him when he was 15 or so.

It simulated a short burst of killing intent directed solely at the victim but was fairly worthless in combat situations. It was simply a blast of pure undirected fear. It was enough to give someone a panic attack but any sufficiently disciplined or experienced person could ignore the effects.

The boy, Dudley Dursley, if Naruto read his memory right, had no such training or discipline. He shrieked and turned white before fainting on the ground with a heavy thud that seemed to shake the earth briefly.

Naruto snorted and his eyes changed back to their normal appearance as he looked down at the thin and scrawny boy who was hesitantly uncurling himself and looking around confused. Naruto growled as he saw the instinctive cringing and wary look on the boy. He remembered how he had looked as a kid. Beaten. Starved. Ignored. Scared. This kid had the same damn look as he looked up him, wondering if he was some new tormentor.

He forced a smile on his face and crouched down. "Hey kid. You wanna come with me? Get something to eat? My treat."

Harry Potter stared at the smiling man with wild blond hair and smiled hesitantly. He knew that everyone at school told him never to go anywhere with strangers but this man seemed rather nice. Nicer than his Cousin, Aunt, and Uncle at least. Finally he asked, "Are you a stranger?"

That seemed to amuse the blonde man whose smile widened even further, "Nah, I'm just weird, kid."

Harry considered that. No one ever said anything about weird people. "Oh, OK," he said with a shrug as he followed the weird man.

 

* * *

 

Vernon and Petunia Dursley were furious after their darling boy told them how some adult had picked on him and his friends and waited for the freak boy to return home to punish him appropriately.

But he never did.

Vernon suspected that the boy had run off. Petunia wondered if the adult was some sort of criminal who liked little boys and was thankful that apparently his perverted tastes didn't run towards boys like her little Duddykins. Dudley was disappointed that he no longer had anybody he could pick on.

Arabella Figg didn't realize that Harry Potter was missing either at first. But after a week with no sign of the boy, she sent a message expressing her concerns to Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore; Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Grand Sorcerer was a very busy man with his numerous titles.

And he had received numerous other messages from Figg, urging action about the boy's treatment at the hands of the Dursleys. He decided that this was yet another one of her overly hysterical and imaginary concerns although he did do a quick check of the various instruments monitoring the boy.

All of them were working perfectly and none of them indicated that Harry Potter was anything but healthy. Assured that everything was fine, he put it out of his mind completely until about a week later when the various instruments alerted him that the wards around Privet Drive were faltering.

He was shocked as the various indicators stopped working completely and the wards collapsed. Albus finally realized that something was wrong but by that time, it was far too late to do anything.

Harry Potter was gone.

 


	2. Training

**4/12/10:** Minor revisions and corrections.

* * *

 

"What kind of backwater place doesn't even serve ramen?" Naruto muttered as he nursed a glass of water as he watched the far too thin boy devouring his hamburger with gusto. "Slow down kid or you'll choke," he warned.

The boy gulped and then took a smaller bite and chewed a few times before swallowing.

"Better," Naruto said with an approvingly nod as the boy took another bite, chewing slower this time.

"If I don't eat fast then Dudley would help himself to my food," the kid explained around his mouthful of food before swallowing.

Naruto frowned, thinking maybe he should have used a bit more scarier genjutsu on the not-so-little brat. "So what's your name? I can't just keep calling you kid."

The kid swallowed his last mouthful and said, "Harry. Harry Potter."

"Well hi there Harry Potter, I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

It took a little coaxing but Harry enthusiastically began to open up, telling Naruto about his mother and father dying in a car accident and how he ended up with his aunt and uncle's home. Naruto suspected that no one had ever bothered to do so before so the kid was pathetically eager to have someone listen to him. He twitched hearing how the kid was living in a cupboard of all places. He thought his life was tough. Damn, he never realized just how much the Old Man had managed to look after him…

Harry managed to finish his hamburger and polished off another one as he related his past history. After he finished, he twiddled his fingers, "Why are you helping me?" Harry asked softly. "No one ever has before…"

Naruto interlaced his fingers together. "Probably because you remind me of myself when I was your age."

Harry's head shot up at that.

Naruto smiled at him. "Yeah. I was orphaned as a kid too. I grew up in an orphanage though. But I was pretty much beaten, ignored, neglected, and starved by people who thought I was trash. That I _**deserved**_ what happened to me," and his cool mask slipped and he felt the centuries old anger infusing his voice.

"Yeah…" Harry croaked, tears in his eyes.

_Damn it. The kid was getting all depressed again._ Apparently Harry had decided to just suck it up and keep his head down whereas Naruto had gone to the opposite route to get people to pay attention to him. Basically, because they didn't dare not to. Who knows what kind of horrors that he would have unleashed otherwise? He heard that a number of the ANBU began cursing his name whenever someone reminded them about the Fertilizer Incident. Including Kakashi Sensei.

He had to do something. Naruto sighed as he stared at the kid. No. No way. There was no way he could do this. It was insane. It was idiotic. It was crazy. It was stupid. He could just hear Sakura lecturing him about the utter foolishness of this. He paused.

Nah, she'd just whack him on the head and scream 'Naruto No Baka'. He grinned as he stroked his chin. _Well, it would hardly be the first insane, idiotic, crazy, stupid, and foolish thing that I've done. Why break my streak now?_

 

* * *

 

Convincing the boy to leave with him had been shockingly easy. Naruto suspected that Harry had been glossing over some of the worst parts of his life with the Dursleys. One of these days, he reminded himself to pay a little visit to the assholes, but he figured if anyone deserved to do that, Harry had the better claim to it.

He shook off his musings as they entered a bramble. Naruto checked the area with his senses and a quick chakra pulse. No witnesses around. He looked at Harry intently. He rather wouldn't do this. It just might scare the kid back into the loving arms of his relatives but after all of the things that everybody had kept from him, he disliked keeping secrets. He began by giving a brief synopsis of his past. He saw the disbelief in the kid's eyes. He grinned. _Well, this could be funny._ He brought his hands together and dispelled his Transformation Henge.

 

* * *

 

**BOOM!**

Harry yelped as Naruto exploded. There was a cloud of smoke and Harry stared at the large quadruped that was now standing there. It was like Naruto had explained, a fox. Although he had never seen one with golden fur that glowed, nor one with nine tails that swayed and waved in the air. Then he saw the eyes. They were the same brilliant shade of blue that Naruto had. The fox stared at him for a moment and then there was another boom and a cloud of smoke and Naruto, well, the human version of him was standing there brushing out his trenchcoat.

"Wha—wha—" Harry stammered, imitating a goldfish.

"Told you," Naruto said mischievously.

Harry shakily pointed a finger at Naruto. "You—your ears!"

Naruto blinked and pulled a small mirror out of his pocket and checked his reflection. "Oh yeah. Damn, they keep popping out," he muttered as he saw the fox-like ears sticking up on the sides of his head. Again. His whisker tattoos were back as well. He closed his eyes and concentrated and his features blurred as they shifted to a more normal appearance. He flashed a wicked grin at the pale boy, "Better?" he asked lightly.

Harry's legs failed him and he dropped to the ground. "Are—are you going to eat me or something?" he asked wondering if those stories that his aunt told him that someday, something horrible would happen to him was finally going to come true.

"Oh trust me, I don't do those sorts of things, besides I doubt you taste very good anyways. Too many hamburgers."

Harry frowned as he tried to work that out. He wasn't sure if he should be relieved. Or insulted. Or maybe both.

 

* * *

 

Surprisingly enough, Harry quickly accepted Naruto's … physical differences. It could have to do with Harry's youth that made him so mentally flexible. But Naruto suspected that after dealing with 'normal' people like the Dursleys who had such rampant abhorrence and intolerance of any oddity, weirdness, or strangeness, Harry had developed an absolute gleeful fascination with those qualities just because they had had been forbidden as a form of rebellion.

Harry loved watching Naruto perform his various jutsus, even the simpler and not particularly flashy ones. It was amusing that he was using his hard won battle skills for entertainment instead for their original lethal purpose.

He had yet to hear any announcements or news bulletins about Harry's absence but Naruto didn't want to take a chance so they quickly left England and were traveling rapidly across the European continent. No legal authorities or police officers stopped them or noticed them. So far, at least.

For that reason, Naruto had dipped into his array of jutsus and tried applying some of the medical ones to Harry. He didn't have very many of them as he wasn't a medic nin but thanks to Granny Tsunade and also Sakura and Hinata, he had picked up more than just the simple first aid ones.

Mainly, what he had wanted to do was get rid of Harry's forehead scar as he felt that was probably the most distinctive and vivid feature that anyone would notice and remember. For some reason though, Naruto could not fix it. Something about the injury resisted any and all attempts at healing it. Naruto could swear that it felt … **_off_** to him. He really needed a trained medic nin to take a look at it. _Not that there were any medic nins left…_ he scowled, in frustration.

To make sure that it wasn't him, he tried using the medical jutsus to repair the other damages and injuries that Harry had acquired from his years of neglect and abuse at the hands of the Dursleys and they all worked perfectly. He had been able to remove or reduce all of the other scar tissue as well as making sure that Harry's bones were fully repaired and strengthened. The kid wasn't going to be stunted anymore, in fact he was already an inch and a half taller and looked like he was going into a growth spurt. Of course, that also could be because he was actually eating regularly now.

Naruto found that he could pull off some amazing healing tricks without relying on the delicately fine, surgically sensitive chakra control ones or the hideously complex techniques. Instead, he just used the most basic, idiot-proof (as Sakura had once called them) ones that he cranked up geometrically with his enormous chakra reservoir. But it had taken just about all of them, plus some half-forgotten scraps of medical knowledge he had dredged up to repair all of the damage Harry had sustained.

What Harry was most pleased about, was that he no longer needed to wear glasses. Thanks to the Dursleys, Harry's eyesight had been a lot weaker (he would still have had to wear corrective lenses regardless) but he had been left practically blind without his glasses. No longer.

Instead he now had visual acuity approaching the 20/10 range. Naruto had been able to tweak things a bit because his knowledge about ocular functions was a bit broader than the rest of his medical techniques thanks to his training to deal with the inherent flaws of the Sharingan.

And so, five months quickly passed…

 

* * *

 

Harry woke up in the lightening darkness. He lay there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling and wondering why it was so high before he realized that he was no longer in his cupboard. It had been five months since he had left the Dursleys but the memories of that horrid time still lingered and crept up surprisingly on him at times.

He smiled and sat up, relieved that he would never have to lay in that cupboard again and threw off the covers and quickly dressed.

Thanks to Naruto's non-existent status, he couldn't very well enroll Harry in school as they would ask for records that Naruto couldn't give them. Naruto had tried, using his genjutsu skills but that only worked in person. Harry had managed to last almost two weeks before the school office called him in saying that they had lost his records and that Naruto needed to fill in a new set. Naruto had been forced to use his genjutsu to give them an illusion that he had been transferred suddenly and they quickly and quietly left the area.

Harry was "home schooling" himself until Naruto could figure something out. But he had his doubts. Naruto could infiltrate just about anywhere, even Buckingham Palace if he really wanted to, thanks to his ninja skills; but creating a paper trail was a bit beyond his ability.

So the human-kitsune hybrid was forced to face his worst nightmare. He was having to study like he was back in school again. But instead of ninja arts, he was cramming modern computers this time in the hopes that he could try to insert the records electronically.

But it wasn't going too well.

Last time Harry had checked, Naruto was still struggling to find the power switch which did not engender Harry's confidence. Plus, when Naruto got frustrated, he tended to forget to "limit" his enhanced strength and he had destroyed five computer keyboards when he had accidentally hit some of the keys too hard.

Despite that, Harry found that he was actually getting pretty good grades as he no longer had to do worse than Dudley. He had a surprising grasp for mathematics, although he was only so-so in sciences and foreign languages. He found that he rather enjoyed reading, particularly fantasy novels. That was something that the Dursleys flat out rejected for some reason; claiming it was all fluff headed nonsense. Whatever.

But his newfound appetite for reading also gave him new hiding spaces as he flipped open one of his books and extracted the shuriken that he had concealed inside. He quickly sorted through the other books to find the other hidden shurikens as well.

He had picked up a few discarded ones during one of Naruto's demonstrations of his ninja skills and had quickly pocketed them.

Exiting his room, he left their dwelling and headed out into the woods for a little practice throwing.

He eyed his target, a large tree and gripped the shuriken and winced felt the sharpened edges slicing thin cuts in his fingers. He stuck them in his mouth and sucked them. After a few minutes he tried again, although he held the shuriken a bit more gently. Right, that was better.

He sighted and hurled small four bladed disk at the target. It spun lazily through the air and landed on the ground and bounced twice. _Hmph. This was slightly trickier than it looked,_ Harry pouted as he took out another shuriken and took aim once more. _Let's try that again…_

 

* * *

 

Another month whizzed by and Harry found himself celebrating his seventh birthday already. He was taken aback to find that Naruto had decorated the house with streamers and had several wrapped presents for him.

After staring at the presents for a long time, Harry had begun carefully unwrapping them to reuse the paper only to have Naruto urge him to rip it open. Harry whooped delighted as he tore the paper and threw it into the air much as he had seen Dudley do it. He had never been able to do that at his own presents as Aunt Petunia told him not to waste valuable wrapping paper, if they even remembered his birthday at all. Which they usually didn't.

His loot included quite a few books and video games but the last thing was a set of dulled shurikens and blunted kunai. He looked at Naruto who smirked and Harry belatedly realized that the hybrid human-kitsune had been well aware of Harry's training exercises.

Naruto proclaimed that he was going to start training Harry in the various ninja arts as it was safer than letting Harry go off and possibly injure himself on his own. However the malicious smirk that Naruto had given him didn't do much for his peace of mind.

 

* * *

 

Harry panted as he jogged through the woods. Naruto had warned him that the training was tough and it wasn't going to be fun but Harry hadn't really understood. Now as his lungs were gasping for air and just about every single muscle in his entire body was burning, he believed his adopted father had gravely underestimated it. Harry could swear that even his hair was screaming in pain.

He gulped as he approached the ravine and leaped off into space, barely landing on the other side, stumbling although he hadn't fallen down this time. A month ago, he wouldn't even clear it. He grunted and blinked the sweat out of his eyes as he saw the clearing and pounded into it and bent over, his arms on his trembling legs and wheezed.

Naruto tsked and consulted his stopwatch. "You barely managed to shave thirty seconds off your best time."

Harry didn't respond even though he really wanted to. Quite frankly, he couldn't spare the breath. Instead, he lowered himself into a martial stance and began slowly stretching into his cool down exercise set. With each exhalation, he felt himself drawing more and more upon his internal energies, his "chakra" as Naruto called it. He could feel it flooding his system, relieving his aching muscles and restoring his expended strength.

He opened his eyes and looked at Naruto and nodded. "How long?" he asked.

Naruto took a glance at the stopwatch again and shrugged, "Eh. About the same as last time."

Harry grimaced, "I could swear I'm getting better at recharging myself."

"Normally at your age, students could revitalize themselves while they were the middle of running. I mean, it's not like an enemy is going to let you come to a stop and meditate to gather your chakra to restore your depleted reserves."

"I'm getting faster!" Harry protested, even he knew it was true.

Naruto nodded agreement, "You're getting used to channeling your chakra. Plus you've started a trifle later than most academy students. But if you think this is tough, then just wait until you have to start chakra channeling while in the midst of fighting for your life. Trying to meditate while someone is trying to kill you is pretty distracting. That's what weeded most of the students out from being Genins."

Harry grumbled. "What now? Sparring?" he asked.

"Nah, let's skip it today," Naruto said, "I wanna see how your **_Henge_** is coming."

Harry nodded and began breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth as he began to gather his energies once more. He felt his chakra flare and he flew through the hand seals. _Dog, Boar, Tiger!_

**"Henge!"** he barked out and he heard the distinctive boom and the cloud of smoke surrounding him. He smirked at Naruto who looked him up and down critically at his doppleganger.

Naruto grinned rakishly, "Damn, I'm handsome," he praised Harry and posed as if in front of a mirror and ran a hand through his hair.

Harry gave a nod and dispelled the Transformation Henge, changing from his Naruto imitation back to his own regular appearance.

"How long can you maintain it now?"

"About four minutes," Harry reported.

Naruto gave a nod, "Work on your meditation exercises. You have to hold it longer for it to be effective. Next week, I'm going to see how well you can Henge into other people that you aren't familiar with. Now, let's see your **_Bushin_** …"

 

* * *

 

Harry panted as he wiped the sweat out of his eye and studied the badly scarred tree trunk with dozens upon dozens of shurikens embedded in it.

_Definitely an improvement,_ he grinned as he remembered his earliest target throwing attempts.

_"…nothing to eat around here…no food…"_

Harry jerked and whipped his head around as he heard someone muttering to themselves.

_"…too cold, too cold…"_ the voice continued griping.

"Who's there?" Harry called out, fingering a shuriken.

_"Aaah! A human! Get away! Get away!"_

_Human?_ Harry wildly looked around and suddenly saw a small snake moving as rapidly as it could away into the tall grasses. "Was that you speaking?" he blurted out, a split second before realizing that was an incredibly stupid thing to say when the snake abruptly stopped and curved backwards. Huh. Maybe not so stupid after all as the snake appeared puzzled, cocking it's head as it stared at Harry in clear bafflement.

_"Did you speak to me human?"_ the snake hissed, it's tongue flicking out of it's mouth.

Harry swallowed. _Holy shit._ "Yeah, I did."

_"You are a Speaker…"_ the snake seemed startled. _"It is said that there were once humans who possessed the Gift of Tongues but I always thought it was legend…"_

Harry thought furiously. A talking snake. That reminded him of a couple of stories that Naruto had told him about this creepy freak, Orochimaru that he had fought as a kid. He wondered if this snake was somehow descended from one of his summoned snake creatures…

 

* * *

 

"No. The Summons don't actually live in this world, but another time and place. The Contracts that they have is what ties them to this world and a Contracted Summoner," Naruto explained.

"Oh."

Naruto continued thoughtfully, "So if it's not the snake … then it must be you."

Harry stared at him, "ME?"

Naruto gave a shrug, "The snake did say that it heard legends about Talkers."

"Speakers," Harry corrected absently.

"Right. Whatever," Naruto said dismissively. "It could be you're a Speaker."

Harry frowned. _Could that be why the Dursleys were so horrible to him? Was it because that he possessed this gift? That might explain why they always called me a freak. I wonder if this means that one of my parents had it too…_

"Have you talked to any other animals? Heard them speaking?"

"Uh … no, but it's not like I've had a lot of exposure to animals. I mean birds, dogs, and cats but that's about it."

"Right. Then maybe it's just snakes then…" Naruto muttered, "Time for a little field trip."

 

* * *

 

Harry managed to confirm that he could only hear and speak to snakes after a few visits to several zoos and pet shops. Naruto reported that Harry was actually hissing when he was talking to the snakes even though he was sure that he was speaking English. Weird. Naruto and Harry speculated that perhaps if he was a Snake Speaker, then perhaps there were other Speakers for some of the other animal species.

It certainly brought up some interesting questions. Harry wondered if he would ever be able to answer them.

 

* * *

 

**A/N:** In case anyone was wondering, Harry was 6 years old when he first met and was adopted by Naruto and Naruto's true form is now that of a very large golden fox with nine tails, bigger than even a Great Dane or an Irish Wolfhound.

Because of his kitsune nature, he has shapeshifting abilities and thus he takes on a human form simply as a matter of habit and so he can blend in better with humans. My mental image of Naruto is that he looks like an older version of himself say like in his late twenties, early thirties. Sort of like the Fourth Hokage, only with shorter hair.

However when he is distracted or startled, certain elements of his kitsune nature may pop out. His facial whiskers and his fox-like ears are an example.

And yes, I do have plans for Harry to attend Hogwarts. However, he will be significantly different than Rowling's version. Naruto will be solely Harry's Sensei in the ninja arts so he will have to attend Hogwarts to learn how to control and use his magical gifts.

Oh and "perfect" eyesight is considered 20/20 vision; that just means that is considered the optimal vision for people. Harry's 20/10 is actually better than average, which means that he can see farther and much sharper than most people.


	3. The Mysterious Power

**Preface:** T3Ko from FF.Net asked a question; _I was wondering how Naruto couldn't sign Harry in. You said that he was bad at 'paperwork'. He was Hokage and lead Konoha for almost a CENTURY. He should have learned something that time._

I didn't say that Naruto couldn't sign Harry in. What I was saying was that Naruto is not familiar with modern day technology such as computers. Basically he could create an **_genjutsu_** (illusion) that had Harry's paperwork all filled out for the workers, but he can't create the paperwork on his own. They were just looking at a blank screen and thought it was all correct. Naruto couldn't create an electronic "paper trail" as it were. That's why he started trying to learn about computers.

Hope that answers his question or anyone else who was wondering the same thing. If anyone else has any questions, feel free to submit them. And now, on with the story!

 

* * *

 

Harry wobbled on the thin and slender beam several feet above the ground as he inched forward. "Don't look down!" Naruto urged helpfully from the ground several feet beneath him.

"Is this really training?" Harry demanded as he lurched as he slid forward another foot.

Before today, he had been rather confident of his sense of balance. After all, he had done this exercise walking backwards and even blindfolded several times. But he had also been standing on a thick beam that didn't bend or flex. Today, Naruto had swapped it out for this pole that bent under his weight and he was feeling like he was back at the beginning of his balance training. Unlike then, he wasn't a foot above the ground.

"Foolish boy! You dare question me?" Naruto demanded in a pompous tone of voice, puffing out of his cheeks in a remarkable mimickry of a martial arts movie master that they had seen last week.

"It's crossed my mind," Harry muttered as he fought to maintain his balance. _More than a few times too_ , his inner voice muttered rebelliously.

"Fear is just another emotion. You feel hot, you feel hungry, you feel afraid. Fear can't kill you! Master your mind and you can master your body!"

"Oh, you so stole that from that movie last week!" Harry shot back.

Naruto scratched his head. "Really? Well, it still sounds pretty good even if the movie was only so-so. But the basic idea applies."

Harry sweated as he continued to wobble along. _Walking on solid ground was not difficult, therefore it shouldn't be any more difficult when you're 12 feet above it right? Right._ Now if only his brain could grasp that little sticking point then everything would be hunky-dory. Then his foot slipped.

Harry tumbled through the air and saw the ground rushing up to meet him. He saw Naruto sprinting forward but it was too late. He closed his eyes and felt like he hit a soft mattress.

_Huh?_

He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the ground with Naruto staring at him. "You OK kid?"

Harry sat up, "Fine."

"It was the damnest thing, it looked like you _**bounced**_ …" Naruto muttered, scratching his head as he looked up at the balance beam and then back down. He began thumping the ground with his foot, checking it.

"Yeah, weird," Harry muttered, more worried about himself as he patted himself down, checking for possible injuries and finding none.

Naruto studied him intently for a moment and then shrugged, "Well if you're OK then let's try it again."

Harry winced. "Uh … I think I might have hurt myself. Pulled a muscle—"

Naruto pointed to the ladder and flashed a grin, showing his prominent incisors. Harry sighed and began scaling the ladder to begin the exercise again.

"And do it faster this time!" Naruto called out.

For now, all thoughts about the bounce/landing was driven from Harry's mind while he was busy cursing his adopted father.

Naruto was grinning. _If Harry hated this, then I can't wait until he got to the tightrope balancing exercises!_

 

* * *

 

 

The soccer ball came arcing through the air. Harry snarled as he tried to limit himself from using his chakra instinctively to boost his strength and speed. He had quickly realized why Naruto had "suggested" this little hobby.

After all that intensive training to develop and harness his chakra, it felt perfectly natural to allow the chakra to run throughout his body to enhance his physical performance.

_What he needed now,_ Naruto had lectured, _was control._ Rampant, uncontrolled chakra flowing through his body and muscles would ultimately prove detrimental to him. He couldn't do it all the time so he had to control where and when he unleashed his chakra. He had to do it consciously and deliberately.

He crouched and leapt into the air, trapping the ball with his chest. _Damn!_ He saw at least two defenders blocking him. He grinned as he saw the way. It would be a bit tricky but he had the angle. Now all he needed was the timing.

As the ball began to fall, his knee came upward to juggle the ball backwards over his shoulder. The two blockheads fell for it, thinking he had knocked it by accident. It wasn't.

He snapped his back, causing him to fall backwards and his kicking leg came arcing up and smashed into the ball in a bicycle kick!

**WHAM!**

The ball went hurtling past the goalie's outstretched arms.

"GOAL!"

Harry panted heavily as he got back to his feet, feeling sweat trickling down his forehead and getting underneath the bandanna that Naruto had him wear to conceal his forehead scar. Quite frankly, he thought that his scar looked rather cool. It made him rather distinctive but he agreed with Naruto that it was simply too memorable. Everyone would remember the bandanna. But it was damn annoying at times.

He grinned as his teammates were all cheering and whooping, a few were slapping his back to congratulate him.

"So cool!"

"Nice kick!"

"Way to go Uzumaki!"

 

* * *

 

 

It was pretty much over after that. Harry's goal had totally taken the wind of their opponent's sails. He grinned as he accepted the various acclamations and congratulations for the winning goal.

He suddenly noticed Anne Locksley approaching and felt his grin slip off his face. _Uh oh._ Until he joined, Locksley had been the star of the team. And she had not taken his ascension to that position very kindly. She was always giving him these smoldering looks before turning away when she noticed him looking at her.

So it was with great surprise when she smiled at him, "Nice shot!" she proclaimed.

"Uh … thanks," Harry said, scratching the back of his head perplexed at her friendly attitude.

She beamed and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "Maybe you could show me that kick sometime," she suggested.

_Ah. That explains it. She wanted to know how to do the bicycle kick._ "It's pretty much a matter of timing," Harry explained, evading giving her a definite time.

Her smile faded a bit. Gamefully, she seemed intent on trying to strike up a conversation, "So what school do you go to anyways? You just show up for practices and games…"

"Uh … I'm home schooled actually," Harry reported, trying not to burst out laughing at the memory of how Naruto had mastered the art of turning on a computer at least. However, Harry had noticed that Naruto spent more time playing video games, than trying to master the art of computer hacking. At least when Naruto wasn't struggling to come up with reasonable explanations to the local computer stores as to why he had to buy computer equipment in bulk. As someone who could crush steel in his bare hands, Naruto was a bit harder on delicate electronics than most.

"Oh …" Locksley looked disappointed and seemed to search for another conversation point, "Well … er … did you and your parents move here recently? I've never seen you in any of the soccer league matches."

_Ah. Trying to check up on him was she,_ Harry realized. _Clever. Very clever._ "Yeah. It's just me and my dad these days. He moves a lot for his job."

"What does he do?"

"Security consulting," Harry lied. That was the most reasonable explanation of Naruto's past occupation that he could come up with.

Whenever asked, Naruto claimed alternatively to be a retired mercenary, an ex-military dictator, or a former living weapon of mass destruction. Most people either thought he was insane or that he was joking. Harry suspected that Naruto took a perverse enjoyment in telling people the truth and watching how they reacted. It fit in his adopted father's warped sense of humor.

 

* * *

 

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow as he watched his adopted charge's confused face as the girl tried talking to him. He smirked as he took a sniff and smelled the pheromones that the girl was pumping out. She was definitely trying to get Harry's attention. She kept smiling at him, batting her eyes, and flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. He assessed her. She wasn't bad looking. Athletic. Sort of reminded him of Tenten.

Naruto's grin widened even further as he saw Harry's face turned from confused to flustered. He cackled. _Kami, this was amusing! I had forgotten just how funny watching kids fumbling around could be…_

 

* * *

 

 

Locksley was getting angrier and angrier and Harry wasn't sure why. He kept trying to find a safer topic to discuss while simultaneously develop the telepathic ability to convince her to go away. Neither was working.

Naruto finally took pity on the kid and came up and clapped Harry on the shoulder, "Hey kiddo. So who's this?" he asked, nodding at Locksley.

Harry resisted the urge to sigh in relief and quickly introduced his father to Anne Locksley and vice versa. Naruto chuckled as Anne immediately shifted to politely demure.

"So," Naruto remarked, "is she your girlfriend Harry?"

Harry choked. "WHAT?!"

Anne looked hurt at his exclamation.

"Heh heh," Naruto ruffled Harry's hair. "It's Harry's birthday next week," he informed Anne. "Why don't the two of you go out next weekend?"

Harry looked back and forth, "Huh?"

Harry wasn't sure what happened after that. There was a quick exchange of telephone numbers and addresses and Locksley scarpered off to grab her things and leave with her parents. He stared dumbly after her retreating form before he finally turned to his adopted father figure and exploded, "What the Hell are you doing?"

Naruto winked, "Setting you up on your first date."

"With her?" Harry protested, jerking a thumb in the direction of Locksley, "She hates me!"

"Definitely not kiddo. She likes you."

"She does?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yep."

"No, she doesn't!" Harry argued, "She's always staring at me and following me around! Plus she acts weird whenever I talk to her!"

"I know!" Naruto crowed, slapping Harry on the back, "My first girlfriend acted like that when we were kids. Well," he temporized, "she was a bit odder. Always blushing and fainting," he grinned fondly in remembrance as he strolled off.

Harry stood motionless for a moment as he tried to sort through this information all before he shook himself awake and charged after Naruto. "Wait a second! What about this date thing?! What am I suppose to talk to her about? What am I suppose to do?" he yelled, flapping his arms, panicking.

Naruto reached out and draped one arm around Harry's shoulder. "Let me share you something that I have gathered from my extensive experience with women."

Harry brightened and listened intently.

"Women," Naruto said with great solemnity, waggling a finger as he pompously lectured, "despite what many will tell you, are not too difficult to understand."

Harry nodded thoughtfully.

"What you have to remember about women is one simple and very important rule," Naruto intoned with the somber and grave manner of a person revealing the holy mystical secrets of the universe.

Harry leaned forward, hanging on every single word. Eager to discover the answer to the riddle that had eluded mankind since the beginning of time.

"Women are all insane."

Harry stared at Naruto for a long moment. Then, "That's it?" he asked incredulously.

Naruto nodded, "Pretty much, yeah."

Harry looked at his adopted father with eyes flattened into slits, "Centuries of experience and that's all you've come up with."

"Trust me on this kid," Naruto said sagely, "It's not just you but every single individual of the male gender. Women are always right because according to them, women are never wrong. So if you _think_ a woman is wrong, then it's a mistake on your part," Naruto said waggling a finger.

"Women can get mad at you for any reason. It doesn't matter if it's unreasonable or illogical. It can be something you either said or thought! And believe me, you can't ask them what you did, because according to them, you _**should**_ know what you did!"

Harry felt his head was spinning at these convolutions.

"And Kami forbid she tells you what she actually wants for her birthday present! No, you have read their mind," Naruto started tapping his forehead angrily, "to know what she wants without her actually coming out and telling you, because it shows how damn thoughtful and sensitive you are!"

"Huh?"

"I know!" Naruto complained, "The simple truth is that you will never understand the mind of a woman and if you think you do, they will change it on you!"

"I see…" Harry said thoughtfully.

"Good!"

Harry nodded sagely, "Basically you have no real idea either."

Naruto scowled and folded his arms across his chest, pouting before admitting, "Pretty much, yeah. Worse comes to worse, tell her that you were wrong and get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness. Works everytime."

Harry shook his head and rolled his eyes. He decided that while his father might be a master of ninja arts, he would have to cherry pick the rest of the lessons he tried to pass on. His dad seemed to be frighteningly mature and wise man some of the time … and a great, big, overdeveloped child the rest of the time.

 

* * *

 

 

A week later, Harry's eighth birthday passed without major incident. His date with Anne went pretty well. It felt odd without the rest of the team there. She was very cute though in a tomboyish sort of way though and they were comfortable together. She even gave him a quick kiss at the very end.

Naruto teased him mercilessly for the rest of the day. Harry had a rather goofy grin on his face but managed to ignore his adopted father's antics. It was fortunate that he disregarded Naruto's advice on women as useless. Well, unless he wanted a quick way to get himself slapped silly or kneed in a very sensitive area.

He did decide that about the only piece of advice he might actually use was the kneeling and begging for forgiveness. That was the sole bit that actually **_seemed_** sound … but that would have to wait until he needed to use it as a last resort. _On the other hand,_ he mused, _Naruto hadn't managed to get himself killed by angry females so it must work right?_

 

* * *

 

 

The rest of the summer was a fun and delightful time. Harry and Anne dated regularly over the next month but September saw Locksley return to school to their mutual regret. They would still date regularly but the demands of their time meant that they would no longer be able to see each other as frequently. Naruto began increasing Harry's training and the next few months flew by…

Harry flew through the hand seals once more. And fumbled the Rat Seal again. _Shit!_ He grimaced and decided to take a break. Harry sipped a bit of water and consulted the much scribbled on scroll again.

Naruto had informed him that aside from the 12 Standard Seals, there were at least 94 additional ones. Nearly 30 of those were repeats of the Standard 12, just in a slightly modified form such as one-handed seals.

Naruto had warned him against trying any of the one-handed seals for his jutsus until he was really proficient in his chakra control. The only other way that you could get away with using them was if you had used the technique so much and so often that it was practically instinctive.

Even then it wasn't quite as easy or efficient as it would have been if you had used both hands. Despite his own centuries of experience, Naruto admitted that he could only perform a few jutsus in this manner himself.

The 60 other seals were more esoteric or specialized seals that were familial jutsus or for highly specialized and exotically unique jutsus. Naruto boasted that he had invented 5 hand seals himself for his own personalized jutsus. Of course, Harry nor any other human for that manner, could use those 5 not to mention the other 20 demonic seals as they were meant to harness the unique mixture of both human and demonic chakra, meaning that only another Jiinchuriki could use them.

He shook his head as he peered at a jotted note in the margin of the scroll. After 2 years of studying his father's scrolls, Harry had gotten fairly proficient in deciphering Naruto's writing (or what everyone else would have called chicken scratching).

He continued to translate a faded string of writing on the scroll deeply. _Hmmm. It appeared to be some sort of code or … or … a very dirty limerick._ He scratched his head and considered his father's character. _Right._ He pointedly ignored that scribble and tried to make out another jotted note. _Ah, this could be useful although nothing to do with handseals directly. It appeared to be some sort of modified Transformation Henge._ He tilted his head to read the meandering script. _But what was an Orioke no Jutsu?_

 

* * *

 

 

The attempt with the **_Orioke no Jutsu_** had proved to be disastrous. Harry had panicked once he discovered just what the jutsu did and clutching a pair of breasts made him realize that this was no ordinary Transformation Henge.

For a moment, he thought that he had screwed up and had somehow transformed himself into a woman. Permanently.

A split second later, he collapsed as it seemed every single muscle in his body was shifting. He wasn't even aware of himself screaming.

Naruto had heard him and came running. Afterwards, Naruto informed him that Harry was flailing around and it appeared his entire body was morphing, apparently trying to shapeshift itself back to a male and kept reverting to female. Naruto knocked him out and reversed the Henge. That seemed to settle things down.

Harry spent the next few days, quietly checking out his … male equipment every now and then, trying to make sure that it was still functioning properly.

Harry was worried about just what was going on. Even though he didn't say anything about the incident, so was Naruto.

 

* * *

 

 

He landed on the tree limb. It bent under his weight and he used the recoil to boost his next leap, landing in a crouch on a much larger and sturdier tree branch. Harry Uzumaki, once known as Harry Potter spared a moment to shoot a wary glance over his shoulder.

He heard and recognized the sounds of someone moving rapidly through the dense foliage nearby. The sounds of small twigs and branches snapping, leaves rustling were clearly audible as the pursuer was clearly more interested in catching up, than stealth. Harry reached into his equipment pouch and pulled out a trio of shurikens in both his right and left hands. He flung up and out his arms, sending out the spinning blades hurtling outwards like missiles.

He didn't even bother waiting to see how his projectiles had fared. The best that he could have hoped for was that his shurikens had been a minor distraction. He back flipped off the branch and dove headfirst down to the ground. His arms snapped out, seized another branch, and swung himself off in a new direction.

He cocked his ear and frowned, realizing that he hadn't heard any sound of pursuit. He stole a moment to warily glance backwards before his eyes swung back to his own path and widened comically as he saw the rushing fist aimed at his face.

Only years of training thanks to dodging Dudley's blows, came into play and he instinctively twisted in midair, evading the blow. Mostly. The fist glanced slightly off his cheek and he tumbled off into space.

He swore and his hand dove into his equipment pouch and withdrew a kunai with a strong wire attached to the handle. He flung it outward, seeing it drive into the trunk of a tree and he used it as an anchor to slow his fall. The wire dug into his palm as he swung around massive tree, his feet brushing against the scarred and battered trunk. He smiled faintly, feeling the uncontrollable urge to scream like Tarzan.

Before his wire ran out and the shock of the sudden stop would have been transmitted to his arm, he let go and landed on the ground with a thump and rolled to dissipate his momentum. He panted and glanced upward to see how far behind him his pursuer was. He was surprised that he didn't see any sign of him. _Uh oh. That meant…_ he carefully surveyed his surroundings. _Above?_ No … no movement in the trees. _Behind?_ He uneasily glanced over his shoulder. _Then…_

**"DOTON!"** a loud voice cried out underneath him. Harry's head snapped downward. _Below!_ He realized as a hand burst out of the soil and clamped hard on his ankle.

**"GROUNDHOG DECAPITATION!"**

He heard Naruto's cry as he was suddenly and abruptly dragged below the earth.

Naruto exploded out from beneath the ground and landed on his feet, brushing off some dirt from his trenchcoat as he looked down at his adopted son's incredulous face at being buried up to his neck. He immediately burst out laughing hysterically, pounding on a tree before collapsing on the ground and rolling around, all the while cackling wildly. "BWA HA HA HA! Oh man! Now I know how Kakashi Sensei must have felt like! Hee hee! Oh Kami, I can't breathe!"

"OK, OK, fine you win! Now get me out of here!" Harry yelled.

Naruto sat up and folded his arms across his chest, mimicking a person in deep contemplation. "Hmmm … let me think about this …" Naruto said as he crunched his face and tilted his head to the side. "Hmmm … hmmm … uh … NO!"

Harry gritted his teeth and tried to wiggle free. "C'mon Naruto!"

"Fine, fine, just let me see here," Naruto began patting himself down before triumphantly extracting a large permanent ink marker and got a wicked grin on his face. "Ah!" he cried out triumphantly.

Harry's eyes widened as he realized just what Naruto intended on doing. His half hearted struggles redoubled. "Oh no you're not!" he yelled. He could swear that Naruto's incisors got even bigger as his grin widened, "Wanna bet?" he asked and uncapped the pen and began walking up.

"OH NO YOU'RE NOT!" Harry yelled and he felt something surge through his body and then the earth exploded.

 

* * *

 

 

Harry yelped and sat up. He blinked as he saw Naruto sitting cross legged next to him and holding an alcohol swap that he had apparently been using to clean some cuts on Harry. "Oh, you're up," Naruto said blandly.

Harry blink blinked. "What happened?!"

Naruto gave a one-shoulder shrug, "Beats the Hell out of me kid," he stated and gave a nod over Harry's shoulder. Harry turned and saw a still smoking crater.

"Did I do that?"

"Yep. Surprised me too. But it wasn't chakra-based. I know what chakra feels like but what you did wasn't chakra. It felt … different."

Harry winced and touched his forehead.

"Your scar acting up?" Naruto asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah. Hurts for some reason," Harry growled as he removed his fingers and looked at it, making sure that it wasn't bleeding. It sure was throbbing though.

Naruto raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. _The scar of Harry's was becoming more and more interesting…_

He really missed Granny Tsunade at times like this. Or even Sakura. Their medical diagnostician abilities would reveal a lot more than his clumsy efforts. All he could tell was that something was weird about that scar.

Despite his many attempts, Naruto had not been able to heal it. And he had tried too. About ten months ago, he thought that he had finally managed it. It lasted for a day before the newly healed skin burst open leaving behind the bleeding wound. It left Harry with a blinding headache for a week afterwards and the jagged scar reappeared, as though mocking Naruto's efforts.

Since then, Naruto had left it alone. But he knew that there was definitely something odd about it. He just wished he knew what. From his centuries of experience though, he had the feeling that it was going to come and bite them in the ass.

 

* * *

 

 

When he had first met Harry Potter over two years ago, Naruto had on a whim, adopted the kid. He felt sorry for him. He needed someone to look after him. Basically, he had just done it on sheer impulse. Just like what he had done most of his life.

At the time, he decided that he had been fairly lucky; the kid was already toilet trained, could feed and bath himself, and everything. It didn't seem like too onerous a task. Deep down, Naruto thought that he just needed to get the kid out from his abusive guardians and after a bit, he could find someone else to take care of him, and he could take off, his good deed done.

Well, that was his original intention anyway. He never intended for it to last this long. Never intended to actually start teaching the kid the ninja arts either. Yet Harry had been so persistent, sneaking looks at his scrolls and picking up his weapons and tools and experimenting with them. So he decided to train the kid for real and show him just how hard it really was to be a ninja. And Harry would be begging him to give it up. _Yep. That was the plan. Amazing how they always seemed to completely fall apart._ Naruto wondered briefly if it was just him or if other people had this problem too.

Frankly, he was flabbergasted at how fast Harry was picking this stuff up. The kid's work ethic was impressive, he simply grit his teeth and worked harder. About the only damn good thing that the Dursleys had done was that they made sure that Harry wasn't afraid of hard work.

He had been sure that Harry was simply too old to begin to develop the ability to harness his chakra. Yet he had. Not to mention his hand-to-eye coordination was phenomenal and his reflexes were incredible. His speed and agility weren't bad either. The kid was a natural. Naruto was sure that had Harry been born in Konoha, he would have been named a genius prodigy like Kakashi Sensei.

Heck, if he hadn't revamped the qualifications and standards for Genins after he ascended to the rank of Hokage, then Harry would have easily qualified as one already. Naruto shook his head in disbelief, wondering just how he had managed to survive his early Genin days with such pathetic training standards.

He had certainly never expected to be a father. Well, not after losing Hinata. He smiled sadly. He remembered a few short years before his investiture as the Hokage, how the rather odd and weird girl who had been his classmate confessed that she was in love with him. He had been shocked and surprised that someone could love him at all.

Despite knowing her probable reaction, he felt obligated to tell her the truth. About the terrible beast that was sealed within him. About the horrible burden that he had been chosen to bear.

He fully expected her to be repulsed. To reject him when she learned the truth.

But she had the courage to look past that. In fact, he smiled fondly in memory about how she had offered herself to him to show him that it didn't matter to her. That had been one of the best nights of his life. Even after all of these centuries, he could still remember with perfect clarity her gasps and soft cries, the sweet scent of her body, the feel of her bare skin against his.

The Hyuuga Elders had not been pleased how the Clan Heir had taken up with him but the grumbling old geezers had ultimately backed down. After all, the couple had the support of Granny Tsunade and several of the other Clan Heads, not to mention that Naruto was the only viable successor to the Hokage post. They knew that their influence and power would only increase so they pasted false smiles on their dour faces and sucked up to him and Hinata. Well, mainly him. They really didn't give a shit about her as long as she was marrying somebody who could increase their political power. _Kami, how he hated politicians. They were all such two-faced lying bastards!_

But he didn't care. Not as long as he had her. They had been very happy for the short time they had been together. Up until the time when Hinata had gotten pregnant. Then, about five months into the pregnancy, she collapsed.

His nostrils flared and he felt his chakra begin to surge in memory of that horrible night. Hearing her screams of agony and the stench of her blood as Sakura, Shizune, and Tsunade fought for her life and their child's life to no avail.

Officially, it was a miscarriage.

Unofficially, the three medic nins conspired to hide the truth.

It was all because of the Damn Fox. The changes that his demonic chakra had done to him had made themselves more apparent in their child. Sakura had tried to avoid telling him, but he had seen how she abruptly averted her eyes guiltily. Both Shizune and Tsunade were much better liars, but when he confronted them, they reluctantly admitted that it appeared that the severe internal bleeding and damage to her internal organs had been the result of the unnatural strength possessed by the fetus. A mere kick from the baby had done all of the damage.

He had collapsed mentally for a while there, grief stricken that it was because of him that Hinata was dead. Dead because she wanted his child. But the trio had known what Naruto's political enemies would make of this revelation; that he was transforming into the Demon Fox. Despite himself, he smirked. _Who knew that they were actually right? I suppose even idiots couldn't be wrong **all** of the time._

So Sakura, Shizune, and Tsunade all falsified their testimonies and doctored the autopsy documents to make it appear that it was simply an unfortunate tragedy. _And who would question the greatest and most skilled medic nins of Konoha? Their abilities were unquestioned … not to mention both Sakura and Tsunade were fully capable of terrifying and intimidating anyone who tried. Not that Shizune couldn't be scary too in her own way; she simply didn't rely on physical threats like the other two._

He never dared to have children after that. Never remarried either, even though quite a few women had offered.

The idea of parenthood had simply passed him by as he threw himself into serving as the Hokage. He had even served as a Mentor to quite a few Genin Cells over the years, but even there he had solely been in a position of authority. He was their leader, but not their father figure. Now after all of these centuries, he suddenly found himself unexpectedly saddled with the responsibility of fatherhood. Well, he was probably not the first man to do so. Probably not the last either.

It felt odd at first to be a parent. To shouldered with the responsibility for looking after another person. For centuries, he had no one to answer to, no one else to think about. Only yourself to worry about. Footloose and fancy free as the saying goes. It was rather surprising how quickly he grew to like it.

He had thought himself prepared for things. He had several centuries of experience under his belt. Surely, nothing could come up that Naruto couldn't handle. He snorted. _Yeah, right._ The problem was that he had no idea about what was happening to Harry and with this strange power that he was manifesting.

It wasn't chakra. And it wasn't like the demonic chakra wielded by the Demon Beasts either.

It just felt … different. He had no other words to describe it. But now that he had sensed it several times, he could tell something else.

The energy that Harry was unconsciously wielding was very similar, yet also very dissimilar to whatever bizarre power that was clinging to that blasted jagged scar on his forehead. Exactly what the Hell **_that_** meant, he had absolutely no idea.

He massaged his forehead and wondered if every single kid was such an annoying and frustrating puzzlement to their parents or if it was just him who was so damn lucky?


End file.
